Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Restaurant Review McFoster's...

Happy hummus

Over the weekend we tried a new restaurant in Omaha. Well, not new at all. But new to me and under new management. 

McFoster's Natural Kind Cafe is a vegetarian restaurant with both Vegan options and meat dishes. 

Our Vegan friends got together and shared four different dishes. McFoster's was offering free hummus and sweet potato fries with the purchase of two meals. We ate well. 

Sweet potato fries

The Vegan Reuben was top-notch. Absolutely delicious. A creamy brown rice eggplant mushroom dish which I don't remember the name of was memorably delicious. Brown rice, eggplant, mushroom and creamy...yeah. Who needs the name of the dish. 

Reuben and brussel sprouts

The hummus was good. Not stellar but the presentation was nice. 

vegan ice cream

Sweet potato fries...oh, so bad, good. Fries battered and fried. And served with banana ketchup. Good thing four of us shared one batch. The banana ketchup was devoured by two of the girls who said they might just take a spoon to it if the rest of us would turn our backs. Ha. It was very bananay and Sarah and I were a little harder to convince. But the fries didn't need it. That's for sure. 

Hannah's meal for &

 A Vegan BLT was fabulous. And the portabello panini both fine. Clearly the eggplant dish, Reuben and sweet potato fries were the highlights of my palette. 

Then we all stopped at Ted and Wally's homemade ice cream where we enjoyed a scoop of Vegan peppermint chocolate cookie crunch ice cream.

If you are in Omaha and looking for Vegan both of these places are worth checking out. And on a funny note...& was in the church nursery on Sunday. Hannah dished up a play food meal. Since it was a lovely vegan spread, & snapped a picture. Ha. Ha.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Cheez-a-Doodly Night

Brie and spicy jelly cream cheese

Last night was the great Vegan Artisan cheese unveiling at the Vegan Omaha meet up. 

As I mentioned earlier in the week, Lindsey and & have been busy little bees fermenting, curing, blending and shaping various cheeses as featured in Veg News magazine. 

They put together a brie, chevre, buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil kabobs three cream cheeses and a sharp cheddar. 

The sharp cheddar had some firming issues so it became a cheese ball rolled in chopped pecans...and many people's favorite cheese of the night. 

We met at House of Loom and had sandwiches delivered by Block 16 (YUM). But, I think the cheese may have been the hit of the night. 

cheddar cheese ball and chevre

chevre, brie and fruit platter

I don't want to exaggerate and say that the Vegans fell on the cheese and devoured it....but....Lindsey and & have customer one and two locked in for the next batch. A vegetarian (those who eat cheese thank-you-very-much) said these cheeses were some of the best he's eaten. The brie won raves from two former brie fans. And those who went up to the cheese bar went back twice, thrice or embarrassingly uncountable times. The bowls and plates were literally scraped clean. Not licked, that would have been tacky, but scrapped indeed. The only thing left on the plates were two tiny bits of chevre which was hidden under an apple slice, a tiny smear of mozzarella and fruit. In a group of vegans who know that sometimes fruit is the only safe thing on the plate, to leave it behind makes a statement. 

Success and kudos. Deliciously good time had by all.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Oreo Bars - Plain, Peppermint and Vegan

These suckers are delish.

3 TBSP Earth Balance (room temp)
2 TBSP coconut oil (room temp)
3 TBSP vegan cream cheese
1 Cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup flour (I used whole grain)
1/4 Cup chocolate chips (Veg of course)
12 Crushed oreos, Jo Jo's or Newman Os (set a handful aside for covering the bars)
 For peppermint 1/3 Cup crushed vegan candy cane or peppermints (save a small amount for topping)

Preheat oven to 375 and grease an 8 x 11 or 7 x 11 pan.

Mix Earth Balance, coconut oil and cream cheese together. Add sugar and vanilla and stir well. Pour in flour and mix. Finally add the chocolate chips, oreo bits (save some for topping) and if going peppermint add that and mix together.

Press into pan and add oreo bits and mint chips as topping. Bake 12-14 minutes.

Cool. Cut into bars.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Just a Thought...

Life is an onion and one cries while peeling it.  

~French Proverb

Scraps and Snippets ~ Feeling Cheezy?

Buffalo Mozzarella

Sprout and soak grains to make your own rejuvelac

Sometimes it's a little scary to spend time with like-minded people. After all, folks who may mesh with us on one level may be polar opposites in others....

We've met a few fun people via Vegan Omaha, a group that gets together to do meet ups at local restaurants several times a year.

The Vegan Cheese Issue

Anyhoo, Sarah and Lindsey are some of the fun Vegans we've connected with via Vegan Omaha. And we've started hanging out a bit here and there. This is probably dangerous on a few levels. A few weeks ago & and Lindsey came up with an EPIC idea.

For an upcoming meet up, Lindsey and & decided to make several artisan Vegan cheeses from the October issue of Veg News.

Cashews and unflavored, unsweetened soy yogurt - Vegan cheese maker's friends

Sweet and savory cream cheese, brie, sharp cheddar, mozzarella, chevre

And I got to help. Mostly by making snarky comments, laughing at mishaps, tasting and taking a picture now and again. 

Oh and filling cheese crusted bowls with water so they didn't turn into cheese cement.


This cheese making thing is pretty crazy cool.

Mozzarella

We now know how to make rejuvelac and this is not for the weak-stomached in the crowd. My usual readers know all about "Mother" (Kombucha). Well. Let's just say rejuvelac might be queen mother because of her stench. Rejuvelac is the juice that forms after about two days of soaking sprouted grains. I believe it is the Vegan cheesemaker's whey. 

Not all Vegan cheeses have rejuvelac. I think only two did. The sharpest flavored two which, after one whiff, only makes sense. 

Rejuvelac (Let's say smells like cheese + old sweat socks)

Each cheese takes DAYS to make. Even the cream cheese (which is amazing). Why? There are hours or days of fermenting that takes place on the kitchen counter or within the dark, cool recesses of a closet or troll-cave-like-pantry. 

Brie (Next to last step)

Throwing the components together is easy, and each cheese really doesn't have a crazy list of ingredients. I think the cheddar and mozzarella were the most involved ingredient-wise. (We finally opened that miso and it's not as scary as I thought it'd be.) Each of the steps took 5 - 10 minutes but the prepping, soaking and fermenting makes this an epic project indeed.

Chevre (last stage before curing for 4 days)

I'll be sure to post comments, reviews and pictures of the plated cheeses. Suffice it to say we ordered the Vegan Artisan Cheese Cookbook after tasting these in step one and two. In spite of the work/wait etc. making our own cheeses just might have to be a regular to do on our list.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Happy Accident Caramel Apple Pecan Shortbread Bars

So I had a Christmas decorating party Sunday night and needed to take a finger food. I whipped through a few cookbooks and found a delicious sounding shortbread bar. A caramel toffee chocolate bar. Win. Win.

I'd give you a review of that recipe but I totally flubbed the caramel. And therefore the recipe.

The shortbread crust went well. And tastes great. 

Crust:
1 Cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 Cup coconut oil
1/3 Cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients well and press into a greased 8 x 11 inch pan. Bake for 12-15 Minutes. 

Let cool. Then prepare the caramel.

Caramel Topping: (Amended in a panic)

1 Cup packed brown sugar
1/4 Cup coconut oil
4 teaspoons non-dairy milk
3/4 Cup applesauce
3/4 Cup oatmeal
1/2 Cup chopped pecans

Mix brown sugar, coconut, oil and non-dairy milk in a saucepan. Stirring constantly bring to a boil. Boil 1 minutes and remove from heat. Stirring. Add applesauce, oatmeal and pecans and stir well. Pour this over the crust and refrigerate at least 20 minutes. 

Cake. 

Once I fixed the fail. 

My fail was letting the caramel go too long. The first inkling of fear kicked up a notch when the sugar separated from the coconut oil after I left it on the flame. I was attempting to lose the grainy sugar texture and then, the bad just got worse. The caramel disintegrated into sugar again. Yikes. So. & suggested I turn it into a crumble topping. Problem, apple limitations. But I did have applesauce so I dumped it in to the sugar aka what once almost looked like caramel, stirred and was pleased to see things come together. I added chopped pecans and oatmeal and it was all good. Very good. Happy Fail.

Scribbles and Scrambles Makes A Black Friday

Posting from the coffee shop. Trying to any way. Black Friday = busy. I've been making coffees for customers. The fancy and intimidating kind: ). Coffees not customers. Gave out my first treat to Bella the Golden Retriever. A satisfied customer. Hope your Thanksgiving was the best. Happy shopping or not. Cheers.